CENTENNIAL 



iTOBICAL ADD: 



KT3T2T 



j ^j-j 






DELIVERED AT 

JULY 4, 187 ' • 
By JUDGE WILLIAM MILLS. 



XEN'IA, OHIO. 

GAZETTE STEAM PRINT. 

1876. 



r \ 



i \ 



.G 



i= 




Entered according to Act of Congress in the 
year 1876, in the office of the librarian of con- 
gress, at washington, 1). c, by william mills. 



/ 1/a^k. . Cut. K>\/34' . fart- ' 

9 My'Ol 



THE ADDRESS. 



My Fellow Citizens: — One hundred 
years ago, our noble ancestors severed the 
bonds of their political servitude with Eng- 
land, and declared themselves and their pos- 
terity forever free, and independent. From 
that day, a new era in the history of civiliza- 
tion, a fresh impetus in the growth and build- 
ing up of the whole country, its towns, cities, 
counties and states is every where witnessed, 
'Tis a fitting occasion then, and while the 
very atmosphere is redolent of patriotic fer- 
vor — to recall scenes and events which have 
become familiar and dear to every American 
heart. Let the welkin ring with the clarion 
shout, all hail the glorious 4th of July, 187G, 
the anniversary of our Nation's Birthday. 
To commemorate the event by demonstra- 
tions of jo} T , enlivened by the sweet strains 
of music, and by various intellectual enter- 
tainments and innocent amusements, as well 
as to rehearse and indelibly impress the facts 
and incidents of the fast receding past upon 



the historic page ; we are to-day assembled 
under auspices, well calculated to inspire our 
hearts with gratitude and our souls with rev- 
erential awe. The quiet repose and beauty 
of the smiling heavens above us, the rich and 
iertile landscape around us, the thousands of 
happy faces before us,beaming with love and 
intelligence, all commingle in this glorious 
festival, simultaneously with the forty mil- 
lions of our fellow citizens, who in like man- 
ner are convened to revive a lively remem- 
brance, as they recall the stirring and life- 
consuming trials and vicissitudes of the 
seven years of constant warfare and suf- 
fering of our revolutionary fathers. But the 
special duty assigned to me on this Centen- 
nial Anniversary of our American Indepen- 
dence, wiil confine my thoughts to a narrow- 
er range, the subject having already been se- 
lected for my reflections, and embracing top- 
ics and events connected with our own be- 
loved county of Greene, illustrating the so- 
cial, moral and mental characteristics of its 
early inhabitants, and showing the natural 
results flowing from sources so pure and 
elevating, as the sequel will prove in the 
rapid, great and grand developments, both 
material and educational. In accordance 
then, with not only the request of my fellow 



citizens, but the expressed will of the na- 
tional councils at Washington, that an his- 
torical sketch of each county be prepared by 
some designated party, for permanent use, 
as well as for the present gratification of our 
patriotic fervor, I proceed with the themo 
already announced, to wit: A historical 
sketch of Greene County, during the last 
century. 

A more pleasing and interesting task 
could not have fallen to my lot, though one 
better adapted for the display of hope's 
bright fancy and indulgence in glowing 1 
prophecies of the greatness and grandeur of 
the unfolding destinies of our yet young, 
but marvelously promising republic might 
have been chosen. As we unroll the scrcl! 
of the past, we find that les3 than 100 years 
ago in all this region, the sunny valleys and 
pleasant hills, the fertile plains and luxuri- 
ant forests, all vocal with the music of their 
native songsters, were then one vast solitude 
unenlivened by the cheering rays of civiliza- 
tion, but still beautiful and lorely in the 
variegated garb and display of nature's own 
handiwork. Amid these secluded vales and 
rolling hill-sides sported the timid deer and 
roving wild turkey, while the stealthy tread 
of the cunning fox, knew no alarm, nor the 



6 

coy doves any fear for their lonely nests. 
The gurgling fountains bubbled up their 
crystal-like beverage and rolled their limpid 
waters away and onward to swell the mighty 
rivers of the great west. Then those gently 
flowing and perennial streams. Silver and 
Sugar, Gesar and Beaver creeks, rippled on 
and ever, as from the morn of creation, but 
as yet there was not an inhabitant to give 
:.hem a name. The falls of the Little Miami 
and Massies Creek, gems of romantic beauty 
for the artist's pencil and abounding in scenic 
le . .. . : all beholders, had been wearing 
: from age to age, deep down iu the un- 
derlying limestone, and dashing their waters 
from cliff to cliff, as if summoning by their 
muring roar, the listening ear and me- 
chanic's liand,to utilize the wasting spray on 
the revolving wheels and machinery of a 
future industry. Another feature of rare at- 
traction and unsurpassed loveliness alone 
peculiar to this section, was the far-famed 
Yellow Spring, a copious fount of limpid 
water and of medicinal virtues, gushing 
forth amid its grand old park of lofty forest 
trees, standing like sentinels in God's own 
temple, embowering in their tender care a 
mound of the aborigines, while bordering 
this panorama and masterpiece of nature's 



own planning-, an echoing cascade could 
be heard plaintively singing their requiem — 
as the sound died away in the silent retreats 
of a charming glen of isolated rocks and 
overhanging evergreens as beautiful as ever 
a painter sketched or poet sang. It was just 
the spot, in subsequent time, for the hopeful 
imaginative and credulous to found a colony 
of "communists." styling themselves "Owen- 
ites," where in 1825, some two hundred per- 
sons, of all ages and both sexes, congregated 
under one roof, dwelling together however 
for scarcely a twelve month, in more or less 
of promiscuity and great inharmony, and 
failing to realize their Utopian schemes of 
sublunary bliss, they wisely agreed to disa- 
gree and separated, again to mingle and help 
swell the mighty ocean of our ever restless 
and struggling humanity in its higher aspir- 
ations for still sublimer heights. The soil, 
the water courses, in fine all nature, as Bishop 
Haber descibes India's Coral Strand, was 
pleasing. Civilized man alone was wanting, 
the noblest work of God, to give a new life 
and energy to this unequalled but tenantless 
Eden. From primeval ages the circling pe- 
riods had been rolling their harvest and 
fruit-bearing seasons of warmth, sunshine 
and rain on all this region, but like the first 



8 

Paradise, there was 110 tiller of the soil to en- 
joy and inhale the freshness and fragrance of 
so delightful an arcadia. Then the untutored 
red man wandered in aimless life over and 
around these verdure-covered hills and dales, 
and game abounding woods, only aroused to 
action when pursuing the beasts of the for- 
ests — himself more savage than they — all un- 
mindful of the grand and ennobling influ- 
ences of the on-coming civilization — when 
once the skilled hand of labor and industry, 
science and religion, should extend their be- 
nign and creative power over this former 
dark and benightened laud, literally causing 
the wilderness to bud and blossom as the 
rose. Such was the outward appearance and 
inner-life of all this surrounding country, 
When our fathers first beheld its pristine 
glory and beauty. The mystery of antiquity 
or tales of romance, need not be invoked to 
tax our credulity, nor traditionary reports 
relied upon as references, for there are 
those to day in our midst whose personal 
knowledge and memory wiil confirm the 
facts and history of this early period, as step 
by step our fathers made their progressive 
march, while taking possession of this goodly 
land. For many years prior to its first set- 
tlement in 1780—1790 and 1791— both sol- 



diers and officers of Gen'l Clark's, Harmer's 
and St. Clair's campaign, as well as scouts 
and prisoners of war, from Kentucky, had 
passed through this section of Ohio, always 
a favorite resort and cherished home of the 
aborigines, the birth place of the renowned 
warrior, Tecum ?eh, and with the keen in- 
sight of pioneer adventurers, had beheld its 
beauties, richness and great agricultural re- 
sources. Upon their return, they reported 
in the fervor of their imagination that they 
had seen canaans of fertility and delight in 
all our river valleys, teeming with alluvial 
fatness, while the eye of taste was charmed 
with the varied and outlying scenery in all 
the intervening country. The reputation of 
this region (since erected into a county) for 
health and desirableness was now well es- 
tablished by these early observers and par- 
ticipators in our frontier Indian warfare, and 
it only remained for all the bold and daring 
spirits, thus schooled in the midst of dangers, 
and surrounded by a relentless foe, when 
seeking a new home, to find their way, one 
by one, or in groups to this fair and beauti- 
ful land. In 1790, all north and west of the 
Ohio, was one unbroken wilderness, except 
along the boundaries of the river, where a 
few fearless backwoodsmen had ventured to 



10 

rear the humble log cabin, and girdle nere 
and there a small patch of overshadowing 
trees as a nucleus for cultivation. But to 
work their way into the interior some 70 
miles, as far north as the limits of our county 
— from the Ohio — was still a work of Her- 
culian labor, and attended with great per- 
sonal danger, so that it required a prudence 
and fortitude to be both strengthened and 
encouraged by delay. But the restless and 
enterprising spirits bom of the revolution, 
nurtured in the midst of hardships and pri- 
vations, ever exposed to attacks from savage 
enemies, were not of a character long to be 
retarded in their resolution, to come and oc- 
cupy the land. With them, to will and the 
way was the same, The very year, 1795, as 
soon as Gen'l Wayne, known as Mad An- 
thony, had concluded a treaty with the va- 
rious Indian tribes, surrendering their en- 
tire jurisdiction to the soil of Ohio, the first 
pioneer emigrant found his way for a per- 
manent home in that portion of Greene Co. 
now known as Sugar Creek township — aud 
he is still remembered as Daniel Wilson, 
having built the first log cabin, on the 7th of 
April, 1796. 

Thus only 80 years ago we may date the 
first authentic settlement of the county, and 



11 

the opening wedge to its transformation 
from the long ages of its wilderness and sol- 
itude to the habitation cf civilized man. The 
North Western tribe of Indians having been 
forced to an unwilling peace, safety was 
now measurably felt and the entire territory 
having been ceded to the United States by 
treaty, the hardy and hopeful pioneer pur- 
sued his way north from the Ohio River, 
through the tangled underbush and opposing 
forest growth, with only his compass for a 
guide and his trusty axe to blaze the pathway 
to his new home. For it was here that the 
almost fabulous tales of the captives, as they 
rapidly surveyed the country, as hurried 
away by their sanguinary foe — had pictured 
out this region as a very Eldorado of their 
nopes — where neither hill nor dale, nor large 
nor sluggish streams encroached upon each 
other, but a happy proportion of each was 
equally distributed in this then remote and 
little known retreat. Emigrant after emigrant 
from both Kentucky and Virginia, followed 
in quick succession. Cabins rose up as by 
magic, and in less than two years after the 
curling smoke of the first stick and mud 
chimney proclaimed the presence and home 
of the white man, many others had dotted 
this hitherto wilderness with their rude tene- 



12 

merits. That portion now known as Beaver 
Creek Township — possessing- all the elements 
of a wealth producing district, is conceded 
the priority in her public improvements, in- 
cluding court house, jail, mill, church and 
school-house, all of the rudest structure of 
logs, but boasting such enterprising citizens 
as Gen'l Benjamin Whiteman, Owen Davis, 
Grover Maxwell, Paul Puterbaugh, Mc- 
Clain, Wolf, Nesbit, Fulk, Tatman, 
Shoup, Robinson, Marshall, Somme and Al- 
lison — the widow of the latter, still living, 
who once occupied this primitive hut and 
seat of justice — while almost simultaneously, 
Thos. Townsley, James Galloway Mitchell, 
Miller, McHatton, Hawn, Andrews, Quinn, 
Hopping, McCullough, Stewarts and others 
settled on Massies Creek and the Little Mi- 
ami. The following year, 1799, the brothers 
Isaiah and Wm. Sutton commenced a home 
in Ciesars' Creek township, and within the 
next three years we find the humble dwell- 
ings of logs rearing their unpretentious 
fronts all over the area now included in 
Greene county. So rapidly had population 
increased, and the demands of civil society 
grown in magnitude, and in various relations 
that the inhabitants organized themselves 
into a county the 1st of May, 1803, out of ter- 



13 

ritory previously recognized as belonging to 
Hamilton and Ross counties, within six 
months after Ohio had been admitted into 
the Union. Here we have the most forcible 
illustration of the active .and intelligent 
character of the first settlers of our county, 
who thus established themselves in legal re- 
lationship with the great state itself, only 7 
years from the time the woodsman's axe had 
echoed their presence, in this hitherto track- 
less forest. In the selection of that revolu- 
tionary name, Greene, they evinced their 
high appreciation of one of the noble com- 
patriots of Washington, who had the title of 
Major General conferred upon him at a period 
of our nation's history when meritorious ser- 
vices and character alone secured that honor 
as a grateful tribute for deserved merit, and 
acknowledged ability. Though these noble 
pioneers had now taken all the preliminary 
steps for a prosperous and growing com- 
munity, still the newness of the country and 
the intervening wilderness between them 
and the lakes— the Indians yet lingering in 
close proximity, and often forming encamp- 
ments in sight of their very dwellings, nec- 
essarially impeded that rapidity of growth 
and social development so desirable and 
characteristic of that brave and patriotic 



14 

band, who had planted themselves on the 
very verge of danger as well as the outskirts 
of civilization. For though Mad Anthony, 
as he was familiarly called, had forced an un- 
willing peace upon all the Indian tribes of 
the northwest — yet mutterings of discontent 
and secret outrages were of constant occur- 
rence, even up to the war of 1812 and for 
some years afterwards, so that the tide of 
emigration into this section was consequent- 
ly slow, during these earlier years. But 
what was lacking in numbers, they made up 
in moral stamina — for only men who were 
self-reliant and hosts in themselves, would 
dare encounter the hardships and personal 
dangers of an exposed and frontier life. 
Hence in the onward progress and success 
of many, it not all, of the great educational, 
moral and religious enterprises, as well as 
local and public improvements credited to 
our county, the philosopher and future his- 
torian will here discover in embryo, all the 
formative elements of lofty designs, and no- 
ble achievements, manifesting themselves in 
the lives and character of these early, bold 
and persistent pioneers. As in the history 
of our race, the law came first and the Gos- 
pel afterward — so in reciting the order of 
events, we shall follow so nigh a precedent, 



15 

and state that the first court for organizing 
Greene county, was held on the 10th of May* 
1803, at the house of Peter Border, some five 
and a half miles west of Xenia, near the Day- 
ton road. The names honored as the asso- 
ciate judges of this first court, fm. Maxwell, 
Benjamin Whiteman and James Barret, are 
so familiar to all the older members of this 
assembly, that it seems but yesterday when 
they were living in our midst. Their nu- 
merous posterity have intermarried, and 
their near descendants are all around us, 
worthily sustaining their relationship to so 
noble a parentage. The first presiding judge 
was Francis Dunlavy, whose keen sense of 
justice and detestation of all wrong doing 
was proverbial, and as an illustration of his 
action in these particulars, it has been re- 
peated scores of times in my hearing, as not 
altogether apocryphal,though not of binding 
belief, that at one of the early sessions, a cuN 
prit was brought before him arrested on 
suspicion of being a horse thief, but the evi- 
dence failed to convict him of the crime 
charged, yet in the examination of the case 
bis general character was shown up to be so 
bad and dangerous to the community, and 
the pr oof clearly fastening the still higher 
crime of arson upon him, that the judge pro- 



16 

nounced him guilty and ordered him pun- 
ished, for the latter offence, as coming within 
the pale of a rigorous justice. This be it re- 
membered, was before the days when the 
technicalities of law were relied upon by its 
violators, as a sure guarantee of acquittal, 
though the facts are all proven and the mis- 
deeds self-confessed. Human nature, then as 
at the present day, required that a Prosecut- 
ing Attorney should be one of the leading 
officers of the court house and Daniel Simons 
was elected for that duty, to control its many 
vagaries and more violent manifestations. 
For it is among the legends of that early 
time that the dignity of office did not always 
secure that respect and reverence so neces- 
sary for its proper appreciation, as it is re- 
lated that the prisoners at the bar would 
sometimes challenge the judges upon the 
bench to a hand-to-hand combat, As the 
names of the first grandjurors are household 
words in our midst, and whose descendents 
are among our most honorable and worthy 
citizens, it is a pleasant duty to name them, 
beginning with Wm. J. Stewart, foreman, 
John Wilson, Wm. Buckles, Abraham Van 
Eaton, James Snodgrass, John Judy, Evan 
Morgan, Robert Marshall, Alexander C. 
Armstrong, Joseph C. Vance, Joseph Wll 



17 

son, John Buckhannon, Martin Mendenhali 
and Harry Martin. 

Among the earliest transactions of the 
court was the division of the county into 
townships,, and to make such appointments 
as their necessities required and their judg- 
ment dictated. The first was that of Joseph 
C. Vance for establishing a seat of justice? 
and the present citizens of Xenia township, 
as well as of the whole county, will find no 
fault with his selection for that duty, nor his 
conclusion as to the best location. 

Next m order we find the remarkable fact 
that both father and son were appointed to 
fill the two most important offices at that day> 
if not the present, in the county's gift, to-wit : 
that of Treasurer James Galloway, Sr., and 
County Surveyor James Galloway, jr. Thei r 
subsequent history and meritorious lives are 
so interwoven with the warp and woof of 
our country's growth and development, that 
no great leading enterprise of a social, moral 
or religious character can be named without 
associating their patronymic, while all works 
of internal improvement, calculated to build 
up and add to the reputation of Greene Co. 
was with them a life-labor and pleasant duty. 
And as a significant fact it may be stated that 
one of the same family, of the third genera- 



18 

lion, Washington Galloway, still holds the 
office of County Surveyor, to the general sat" 
isfaction of the public. 

The next appointee, to record all these first 
judicial proceedings, is the venerable name 
of John Paul, suggestive in its combination 
of two such historical personages, of a union 
of qualities and characteristics, to insure 
both fidelity and courage in its proper dis- 
charge. 

Another indispensible officer, always a ter- 
ror to evil-doers and unfortunate debtors, 
was that of Sheriff. It was conferred upon 
one Nathan Lamme, whose presence to any 
one consciously guilty, would impress him 
as was David of old, "Thou art the Man ! " 

If time permitted, it would be both pleas- 
ant and profitable to recall the names and 
peculiarities of each of the many public offi- 
cials down to the present day, as possessing, 
individually and in the aggregate, noble 
traits of character and integrity of life, wor- 
thy of our admiration and adoption. This 
conclusion is legitimate, from the knowledge 
of those who knew them personally, as well 
as inferential, from the tact that of all the 
county officers, from its organization in 1803 
to the present date, that, on the average, each 
oue of the eleven have held their respective 



19 

places for the period of over eight years, a 
longer term than Jacob stipulated to serve 
for his beloved Rachel. 

Passing now from the corner-stone super- 
structure of the judicial temple, it remains to 
introduce the bar. A shorter and more com- 
prebensive word, and variable in its mean- 
ing, could not have been extracted from 
either the ancient or modern languages than 
that which by common consent is used to 
signify the devotees of Blackstone and Coke 
in their professional career as advocates of 
law and justice. The travesty of the word 
by the followers of Bacchus is only another 
illustration that the livery of heaven is often 
seized upon to give character and dignity to 
otherwise doubtful if not criminal employ- 
ments. But it is in the higher and nobler 
sense that I take pleasure in recalling to your 
memory some of the distinguished members 
of the Greene County Bar who have now 
passed forever from the horizon of human 
observation. I will only name one of your 
early prosecuting attorneys— John Alexan - 
der,— and many a poor criminal who has no t 
yet shuffled off his mortal coil will see ris- 
ing up before him the stalwart image of thi s 
modern Boanages whose portly presence and 
stentorian voice would cause every fiber of a 



20 

guilty man to quake as one already con- 
demned. For lull 20 years the terror of his 
name, as he loomed up, an avenger of viola- 
ted laws upon all the disturbers of the peace 
and good neighborhood, made him a con- 
spicuous figure in Greene county's temple o^ 
justice. Many others are worthy of an ex- 
tended notice, but the fresh memory of most 
of my audience will fill up their scroll of 
fame as I mention Wm. Ellsberry, Joshua 
Collet, John M. Miller, J. W. Lowe, J. G. 
Gest, Aaron Harlan and Hugh Carey — these 
among the dead, while those composing the 
living Bar are making their record, under the 
ligbt of all past experience and in the esti- 
mate of an impartial judgment, are worthy, 
even now, of a place upon the historic record 
that shall hand their names down to posteri- 
ty. No less than four of the present mem- 
bers have been clothed with the ermine of 
authority, balancing the scales of an even- 
handed justice between their fellow-men, 
while several others might fitly wear, and 
doubtless will, as time rolls on, the same ju- 
dicial robes. B >th state and congressional 
honors have already been bestowed upon 
different individuals of our legal fraternity, 
so recent and conspicuous as to need no men- 
tion. In contrasting the past with the pres- 



21 

ent, what mighty strides in civil polity, social 
life and all the elements of a civilized and 
refined community since the session of the 
first court in the log-cabin on Beaver Creek, 
seventy-three years ago. 

We now turn to that portion of our histor- 
ical sketch around which cluster the most 
bacred relationships and dearest interests of 
our common humanity. You already antic- 
ipate me as I announce the moral and relig- 
ious element, as accompanying and manifest- 
ing itself in the very organization of the 
county and destined to wield an influence, 
both purifiing aud elevating, in all its future 
progress and highest developments. It is a 
noticeable fact that the first ministrations of 
the Gospel were initiated by the Rev. Rob't 
Armstrong, a most thoroughly educated and 
scholarly teacher and divine, a graduate of 
the University of Edinburgh, who came here 
while as yet the wigwams and camp-fires of 
the Indians constituted one of the features of 
the native forests, and the single-roomed 
cabins of the early setters offered him their 
only accommodation and hospitality. But 
inspired by the love of his Divine Master, he 
braved the privations and dangers of this 
then unsubdued frontier, casting his lot for 
weal or woe with his noble compeers, assist- 



22 

ing them in building up their infant colony, 
both by word and deed. He was the first 
minister licensed to solemnize the right of 
matrimony, an institution as sacred and pop- 
ular with our forefathers as now ; and well 
might he have been proud could he have 
foreseen the results of his performing that 
ceremony upon so distinguished and widely 
known couple, in after years, as the late Maj- 
or James Galloway and Martha Town6ley. 
It is hardly possible to overestimate the val- 
uable services of this Scotlish divine who 
left his native country as a missionary of the 
Seceder denomination for the State of Ken- 
tucky ; but his benevolent and christian spir- 
it revolting at the institution of slavery, he 
naturally followed the tide of emigration to 
Ohio. A man of rare culture and deep piety, 
he exerted a formative influence upon the 
original settlers of the county, to the careful 
observer everywhere apparant among their 
descendants, even to the present day. 

The oft occurring dangers and the neces- 
sity of mutual assistance in opening up this 
hitherto trackless forest united them all in a 
common brotherhood, which ignored all the 
artificial distinctions of wealth, birth and 
family, and both priest and people co-oper- 
ated in clearing and subduing the wilderness ; 



23 

and at log-rollings, wood-choppings, and 
house- raisings the greatest hilarity and free- 
dom was reciprocated and enjoyed by each,, 
whether it was his own or his neighbor's 
homestead that was being enlarged and im- 
proved. The generous-hearted and open- 
handed benevolence of this worthy divine 
became proverbial as he mingled in free and 
unrestrained intercourse with these bold 
pioneers, and on every fitting opportunity, 
either in the open air or humble cottage, he 
was ready to instruct and inculcate the pure 
doctrines of his holy calling, as his cherished 
and dearest life-work. Numbered among 
his hearers, friends and followers were- 
names that have become historical and hon- 
ored, and whose descendants have maintain- 
ed the reputation of their ancestors, both at 
home and abroad, and many of them are to- 
day among our most highly esteemed citi- 
zens. A few can only be mentioned ; but in 
that early list will be found the Quinns and 
Forbes, McCoys and sons, James and John 
Stevenson, Thos. and John Townsley, George 
and James Galloway, the Kyles, Morrow, 
Moody, McFarland, Miller, Laugheads, Col- 
lins, Bulls, Gordon ; and in Sugarcreek town- 
ship, John and Joseph McKnight, Joseph C. 
Vance, the VanEatons, Bains, Biggers, 



24 

Holmes, and many others equally worthy of 
a lasting and cherished remembrance. But 
the Rev. Mr. Armstrong was not long the 
sole reaper in this remote vineyard of the 
Lord, for we find another able and devoted 
divine in the person of the Rev. Andrew 
Fulton of the Associate church, who arrived 
in this new field of labor in the following 
year, on the 1st of September 1804. His ac- 
tivity, zeal and piety are still themes of lov- 
ing memory aud instructive comment. 
Through his exertions and the co-operative 
influences and liberality of John and James 
Stevenson the first Associate church in 
Greene county was erected upon the land of 
the latter. The simplicity of its structure 
and absence of all adornment, its rustic seats 
and floor of mother earth with no provision 
for heating, while the wintry blasts of snow 
and wind were warded off by filling up the 
open space between the logs with mud and 
clay, will afford a striking contrast between 
the church accommodations and architecture 
ot that clay to the present, and much food for 
profitable reflection as to whether the piety 
of the later worshippers has correspondingly 
increased with their external evidence of 
wealth, taste and refinement. Almost simul- 
taneously with the advent of the Rev. Mr. 



25 

Fulton appeared the Rev. James Towler, a 
Methodist, from Fetersburgh, Virginia, 
whose character, standing and ability may 
readily be inferred, from the fact, that the 
first good log house erected in Xenia by its 
citizens was for their esteemed pastor, the 
pioneer herald of John Wesley's mode of 
presenting the truths of the gospel. From 
these three exemplary teachers and spiritual 
guides, like the mountain sources of some 
gigantic river, which in its onward flow 
bears upon its bosom the commerce of the 
world, one can trace out in the intellectual, 
moral and religious growth of society the 
grandest results in ever maturing harvests of 
immortal fruitage. Thus the foundations of 
the various religious organizations in our 
county were laid broad and deep by these 
original divines, and it would be both inter- 
esting and profitable to recite, in detail, the 
rise and progress of each denomination, and 
their location in the county, but the allotted 
hour forbids. In passing down the stream 
of time for the next twenty-five years we 
find a constant development of this element 
as strengthened by the Baptists, Presbyter- 
ians and other christian sects, when a strong 
tide of immigration set in from the Caroli- 
nas, preceded by that most earnest, learned 



26 

and distinguished ot all the bright galaxy of 
Greene county's later divines, the Rev. Hugh 
McMillan, of the Covenanter church. From 
his advent a new impulse was given to the 
cause of education, social and moral reform, 
and every good and noble work. He came 
among us in 1828, and was so well pleased 
with the country that his reports back to his 
former home, portraying the advantages and 
desirableness of this section to all seeking a 
beautiful and fertile land, where both civil 
and religious liberty might be fully enjoyed, 
that within the next five years some two hun- 
dred emigrants composed of the best citizens 
of the two Carolinas followed him to this 
county, and to-day many of them commer- 
cially, socially and intellectually hold the 
highest positions in our community. 

Hitherto the great majority of settlers in 
our midst were from Kentucky, Maryland 
and Virginia, but now reintorcements from 
many of the Southern States added largely to 
our population, and chiefly of a character 
that would enrich any section by their ener- 
gy, thrift and high moral tone. It was about 
this period in the history of our country 
when the slavery question began to agitate 
society to its profoundest depths and to 
rouse up to a vigorous action the quickened 



27 

conscience of all the true and good through- 
out this entire nation. Hence men of prin- 
ciple, character and thought, protesting 
against an institution so blighting and unjust 
in every respect, and unwilling to bring up 
their children under its demoralizing influ- 
ences, early sought a removal to this free 
state, already widely known for its sturdy 
and enterprising population and advanced 
sentiments on the subject of human rights. 
As surely as operates the law of gravitation 
so moral and mental proclivities have their 
affiliations and attractions as unerringly in 
the associations of individuals, families and 
communities. Hence the reason is obvious 
and it is no exaggeration to claim for the 
early settlers and founders of our social, 
civil and religious institutions that no terri- 
tory of equal numbers, in any county or 
state in the Union, can boast of a citizenship 
composed of better material, where charac- 
ter, conscience and principle were the foun- 
dation stones and bases of all after super- 
structures. Not only from our own con- 
tinent were we thus replenished with the 
choicest of immigrants, but from Europe, the 
better classes, discontented and restive under 
their oppressions, seeking a freer land an# 
broader civil and religious liberty, turned 



28 

their eyes westward for the realization of 
their hopes. The ordinance of 1787 having 
dedicated the whole North-western territory 
to freedom forever, and Ohio being 1 the near- 
est and first State organized under its pro- 
visions, and this section of it having already 
been heralded as one of the most attractive 
and fertile, ii was universally looked to as 
the very Eldorado of North America for all 
seeking a new home, and to these circum- 
stances we are indebted for so many worthy 
representatives of this element from the clang 
of Scotland and the quick-witted and light- 
hearted sons of the Emerald Isle. The inter- 
mingling of individuals and families from 
different States and nationalities, each pos- 
sessing some traits of character and ideas 
peculiar to themselves and educated under 
systems of government diverse from each 
other, naturally quickened their intellectual 
perceptions, and led to discussions, divisions 
and new organizations of church relation- 
ship, all evincing a zeal, life and aspirations 
for the highest moral attainments. For ac- 
cording to the laws of human development 
all progress and growth are the result of agi- 
tation, and discontent with the present estab- 
lished order of both civil and religious insti- 
tutions. The fomentation consequent upon 



29 

this principle, so conspicuous in our county, 
produced a corresponding activity in all the 
beuevolent operations of the day, especially 
in the Bible and missionary cause, coloniza- 
tion societies, various temperance organiza- 
tions, and many other charitable enterprises* 
all looking to the moral welfare and eleva- 
tion of the community, the beneficial effects 
of which have been extended throughout all 
this region,, and are both seen and felt down 
to the present hour. And on this occasion it 
shall be our agreeable duty to revive and per- 
petuate pleasant memories of some of these 
former spiritual guides, albeit they are even 
now fresh and enshrined in the hearts of 
many throughout the county — such men as 
Armstrong, Fulton, Steele, Adams, Smart, 
Herron, Beveridge, Hugh and Gavin Mc- 
Millan, Pringle, Munfort, Poague, Russell, 
Reeder, Sales, Trader, Christie, Raper, Dur- 
bin, Findley, Simmons, Bontecue, besides 
many more whose faithful labors are record- 
ed on tablets above, undimmed by the mists 
of time and not subject to the process of de- 
cay. And of the many who have gone out 
from us, perhaps no richer legacy of good 
deeds and wise counsel have been bequeathed 
to us than by Drs. Harper and Findley, whose 
labors and wide usefulness have been sought 



30 

and transferred to still larger communities, 
evidencing an appreciation of their eminen! 
abilities, piety and worth. Those still minis- 
tering at the same altars in our midst are 
Drs. S. Wilson, of spotless record, who, in 
1833, with Revs. A. Pogue and T. Steele, D, 
Monroe and J. Harbison, formed the first 
anti-slavery society in Greene county, when 
to do it tested the manhood, courage and 
faith of the strongest mind and boldest heart. 
And in the list of Doctors of Divinity are 
Morehead, Carson and Crum, while the 
Revs. Hanna, McMichael, Prugh, Bedell, 
Hopkins, Shaffer, Yockey, Hypes, Sphar, 
Gaddis, Richards and others are still enrolled 
as faithful laborers in the great harvest-field 
of humanity's fruitage, and their work is not 
yet finished. We therefore leave their record 
for the future historian, only indicating in a 
summary way, the obligations of the county 
at large for benefits and blessings flowing 
from these sources as fouutains of pure and 
never-failing supply, preserving and perpet- 
uating, in healthy organizations, all the vari- 
ous interests of society, social, moral and re- 
ligious. Naturally growing out of the teach- 
ings of the clergy, Greene county may well 
challenge comparison with any area of equal 
extent and numbers, to produce efforts and 



31 

results, in the educational line, that can rival 
her own, in variety, magnitude and wide ex- 
tended reputation. "With a just pride she 
can point to her Union School edifices, natur- 
ally in her suburban villages, as remarkable 
for their size and architectural finish, so ornate 
and complete in all their appointments, and 
pleasing to the eye of taste, as to be typical 
of their grand design, securing to every child 
in their several precincts, a free and liberal 
education ; but in Xenia alone no less than 
five noble structures are devoted to the same 
beneficent ends, where both the elementary 
and higher branches are imparted with a 
like generosity. And notwithstanding such 
ample provisions have been made for the 
masses, yet institutions, ranking in their 
thoroughness and breadth of culture with 
the oldest and most renowned in the land, 
are to be found in her limits, and worthy of 
special notice. First in order of time and 
chartered privileges, appears Antioch Col- 
lege, opened in October, 1853, with that most 
enlightened educator, statesman and philan- 
thropist, the late Hon. Horace Maun, for its 
President. With so distinguished a head, 
and the announcement that both sexes were 
to be admitted to equal advantages in all the 
departments of the institution, and the un- 



32 

sectarian character of the institution, all cor 
tributed to direct the attention of the brigr 
and aspiring youths seeking an education, t 
early crowd its halls. From the Far East t 
the remote West, young men and women, c 
earnest intention and loftiest aims, becam 
its inmates ; and to-day its graduates are fiL 
ing posts of honor and usefulness, in the vari 
ous fields of human industry, where literal* 
ability and moral worth are sought as ageu 
cies, to build up and adorn society,as well a 
active participants in the great political aren 
of both our state and national councils. Th 
broad and liberal features of the institutior 
the world-wide renown of its first Presideni 
and the noble work it has already accom 
plished, have made it well and favorabl; 
known, not only in our own land, but oi 
the continent of Europe, in all the famou 
seats of learning and schools of art, from thi 
Louvre to the Vatican, from Leipsic to Ber 
lin. In after years, if not now, it will bi 
claimed as a trophy of richest inheritance 
that within the limits of Greene county, wai 
located Antioch College, that such and sucl 
statesman and scholars went lorth from hei 
halls, and that the great commoner of uni 
versal education, and one of the greatest ad' 
vocates of human rights and all practica 



33 

mcral reforms, the late Hod. Horace Mann ? 
lived, and died here in tne midst of his 
world-wide usefulness. The second lumin- 
ary in the educational firmament of Greene 
county, is "Wilberforce University, dedicated 
in October, 1856, by the Rev. Edward Thomp ■ 
son, late Bishop of the M. E. church, under 
the auspices of that denomination. It was 
founded by a pure and lofty patriotism, in- 
spired by holy, christian impulses, for the 
benefit of the sons and daughters of African 
blood. Here unrestricted, the highest colle- 
giate honors can be conferred upon a race, 
long trodden down and held in bondage by 
the usurpations and tyranny of the more 
powerful Anglo-Saxon. Its establishment 
was a testimonial of a sense of justice that 
was felt and acknowledged, as due them, for 
the many disabilities and wrongs inflicted 
upon them in our country, from its earliest 
history. The noble effort to furnish such 
ample provisions for the colored race, was 
alike creditable to the head and heart of all 
its early friends and benefactors. Its first 
teachers, Rev. M. P. Gaddis, Parker and R. 
T, Rust, D. D., will ever be associated with 
this purely benevolent effort, to secure uni- 
versity privileges and honors for this class of 
our American citizenship. But financial dif- 



34 

Acuities occurring, it passed into the hands 
of the African M. E. Church in 1863, and 
with Bishop Payne for its President. A 
grand success has crowned their endeavors, 
and the christian and philanthropist may well 
rejoice, that the benign spirit of the gospel 
has been developed in so noble and trium- 
phant a work. Again, a third collegiate en- 
terprise belongs to our county, first establish- 
ed under the style of the M. E. Female Col- 
lege, with llev. Mr. Lowry as President, as 
one of the pioneer institutions in the West 
for that class, where all the advantages of a 
broad culture and tho highest scholastic at- 
tainments could be enjoyed by those desirous 
and ap preciative of its lofty aims. But more 
recently, in harmony with the growing and 
enlightened spirit of the age, its halls have 
been thrown open to both sexes without dis- 
tinction, in her graduating diplomas. Here- 
after it will be known as Xenia College, and 
one of the representatives of advanced idea?, 
in its co-equal advantages to both sons and 
daughters. Its President, Mr. William Smith, 
has been its official head for the last eighteen 
years, its origin dating back to a Female 
High School, taught by Dr. Towler; but the 
growing demands of the city for still higher 
advantages of education, resulted in its pres- 



35 

ent chartered privileges and flourishing con- 
dition ; and it now has a high reputation 
among all educators and lovers of their 
country. In addition to these three purely- 
literary institutions, there is still another no- 
ticeable seat of learning here, (one of the 
oldest, if not the first established in the 
United States.) This institution was found- 
ed in the year 1794 and located first at Ser- 
vice Creek, Beaver county, Pa. In 1821 it 
was removed to Cannonsburg, Pa., and in 
1855 to Xenia, O. In the year 1874 the U. P. 
Seminary of the North- West, located at Mon- 
mouth, Ills., (formerly the Associate Reform- 
ed Seminary of Oxford, O.,) was united with 
it. It is known as the Theological Hall of the 
United Presbyterian Church, furnished with 
as able a corps of professors as can be found 
in any seminary of religious instruction, 
either East or "West. Its celebrity is not 
confined to our own county or state, but it 
has a reputation and character for thorough- 
ness and scholarship and biblical lore, as 
wide-spread and honored as the members 
and teachers of that branch of the christian 
church are well and favorably known. Men 
of marked ability, and so distinguished be- 
yond the limits of our own state, as its teach- 
ers, Doctors Moorehead and Carson, Bruce 



36 

and McMichael ; and 3tudents of high prom- 
ise still give evidence of its popularity and 
success. In the aesthetic line, a Conservatory 
of Music, under the management of Messrs, 
Johnson and Brown, founded in 1870, as a 
local and independent institution, already 
patronized by students from seventeen states 
and the Canadas, is the most striking illus- 
tration of the refined taste of the people, and 
their appreciation of the most elevating and 
sublime of the divine arts. Among the pub- 
lic institutions of the county, representing 
the delicate consideration and benevolence of 
its citizens for the unfortunate and poor, is an 
Infirmary, under the superintendence of Har- 
vey Gram, of dimensions equal to any emerg- 
ency, and in external appearance palatial in 
its imposing grandeur. Besides this home 
provision for the dwellers within her own 
borders, Greene county has had the honor 
and glory of having established on her own 
soil, by state authority and beneficence, a 
Home for the Soldiers' and Sailors' Orphans* 
presided over respectively by Dr. Griswold? 
Jenner and Kerr, in the past, and now by 
Captain Wm. L. Shaw. With its six hundred 
inmates, it must ever reflect credit and a last- 
ing renown upon its originators and advo- 
cates, as one of the grandest and most hu- 



37 

mane of public charities, in all the range of 
sympathetic and christian efforts to benefit 
and bless the fatherless, so rendered by the 
devotion and self-sacrifice of their paternal 
guardians, who yielded up their lives on the 
fields of battle, in hospitals, and military 
prisons, all in the service of their country. 
May the citizens of Greene county ever prove 
worthy of the location in their midst of an 
institution so beneficial and patriotic, an out- 
growth and a living witness of the state's 
gratitude to her brave and fallen soldiers 
during the last war. How suggestive is this 
of a just recognition of the honorable record, 
engraved upon the military escutcheon of old 
Greene by her volunteer soldiery when our 
nation's flag was being trailed in the dust and 
the very life of the republic assailed. It is 
still fresh in your memory lhat then, the 
youth still in his minority, the middle-aged, 
and the gray-haired, flocked to the standard 
where floated the stars and stripes, and on- 
ward pressed their way to the gory field, re- 
gardless of personal danger, all intent on their 
country's safety and honor. Of the thous- 
ands who enlisted and became connected 
with the Greene county and other regiments 
as privates and officers, only a few can be 
named as suggestive of hundreds of others? 



38 

both living and dead, worthy of all honor 
and the lasting remembrance and gratitude of 
the entire community. As familiar on the 
martial roll, the call may begin with General 
Moody, Von Schrader, Lowe, Stevensons* 
Findley, Owens, Ballard, McDowell, McMil- 
lan, Hutchison, Hering, McClung, Shaw> 
Drs. Brelsford and Steele, Chaplain Marshall; 
and a host of equally good and true com- 
rades, all too numerous to be mentioned. As 
we drop a tear over the memory of the dead, 
still fresh and dear to the hearts of all the 
survivors, we will only add, high on the 
scroll of fame let the glorious war-record of 
old Greene in that late bloody conflict be in- 
scribed in living letters of flaming fire, per- 
petuating her honor and patriotism to the la- 
test generation. 

To turn, now, to another branch of our 
historical sketch, a brief allusion must be 
made to some of the earlier distinguished 
names well and favorably known in trade 
and commerce, who were active agents in 
building up and making: possible all the after 
great and noble developments of Greene 
county. For the merchants, by their enter- 
prise and liberality, not only supplied the 
necessary wants of a new community but al- 
so served as bankers to the extent of their 



89 

then limited means, and in every way by their 
intelligence and public spirit were valuable 
members of society. Their honorable repu- 
tation is still maintained by their descend- 
ents and those at present engaged in mercan- 
tile pursuits in our midst, so that in the list 
will appear both classes : The Gowdys, Hiv- 
lings, Nunnemaker & Allen, Dodds. Puter- 
baugh & Allison, Canby & Walton, Merrick 
& McClure, Millens, McMillan, Bell & Ash, 
Thorpe, Allison & Townsley, Stark & Lytle, 
Cooper & Hutchison, as business men and 
firms familiar to every household in the 
county. There is still another class of wor- 
thy and enterprising citizens to whom the 
great prosperity and early rapid growth of 
the county is indebted, in the builders and 
operators of our flouring and lumber mills. 
These first and necessary industries were of 
primal importance and the foundation of all 
succeeding manufacturing establishments. 
The names of these men are ingrained in the 
memories of almost every family living in a 
radius of forty miles of their location. The 
record will embrace Owen Davis, Smith, 
Scott, Patterson, Kemp, Bates & Lewis, 
Ploughman, Knott & Johnston, Stewart & 
Jacoby, Engles ; the Bakers— Thomas, Josh- 
naandNoyl; Faille, Moody, Palmer, Grin- 



40 

nel, Jacobys, Sexton, Baughman & Snyder, 
Foreman & Ankeny, Haynes & Harner, Har- 
beins, Knisely, and many others, all identified 
with the most important interests of the 
county, and in their supplies of food to the 
hungry and lumber for tenements to the poor* 
became the real benefactors of their race. 
The example and spirit of these men stimu- 
lated others to an activity and zeal in starting 
up a large variety of domestic industries 
where waterpower alone was used to prope* 
machinery ; so that by any fair comparison 
with any other community, even at the pres- 
ent day, she may well challenge competition* 
when the newness of the country, scarcity of 
money, absence of the raw material, want of 
finished machinery, and all other disabilities 
are considered as factors in the general esti- 
mate. For under all these disadvantages, it 
is historically proven that the flouring mill 
on Beavercreek, built by Owen Davis, and 
afterwards known as Smith's, was the first 
and only one erected within seventy miles, 
when roads and bridges were unknown in 
this frontier district, and the winter season 
was used to make available the snows to 
smooth the surface and the frosts to congeal 
the streams, so that transportation could be 
had to and from the Ohio river. Yet at this 



41 

early period, between sixty and seventy years 
ago, carding and lulling machines, cotton, oil 
and woolen mills, scythe and gun factories 
were in operation and at Oldtown, the ancient 
Chillicothe of the Shawnees, Wyandotts, and 
other aboriginal tribes of Indians from time 
immemorial, ana where Simon Kenton ran 
the gauntlet, and other white prisoners were 
tortured and many families massacred, evdn 
Connecticut was represented in a genuine 
clock factory by Messrs. Eeed & "Watson, 
while other branches of mechanical industry 
were carried on by Messrs. Ballard & North, 
West & Cu8hmau. But prior to this, even, 
Mr. Embry, a Friend Quaker from Tennes- 
see, had established a nail and sickle factory 
and erected the first flouring mill at that 
place, antedating in some of his enterprises 
anything of the kind in the North-Western 
territory. And at this point, likewise, was a 
trading-post for the Indians, dating far back 
in the obscurity of the past, being on the 
great traveled route and war-path from the 
Blue Licks, and Maysville, in Ky., through 
old Chillicothe, on to Piqua, Detroit, and the 
prairies of the far-off West. No lovelier sec- 
tion and richer soil, with such charming sur- 
roundings of rolling uplands and flowing 
streams, can be found in this or any other 



42 

county in the state. To the antiquarian, a 
rich field of investigation is now opened up> 
in the ancient fortifications and numerous 
mounds of a forgotten race which abound in 
all this region, crowning the summits of the 
Miami hills, and giving a two-fold interest to 
the rocky glens and rising grounds near Ce- 
darville, while stone hatchets and battle axes, 
copper wedges and other articles of metalic 
construction, all indicate an early and long- 
ago occupation of this romantic and delight- 
ful locality, by an appreciative population, 
more or less civilized, of the "Genus Homo/' 
whether white, brown or red. And at Clif- 
ton, too, full forty years ago, the Messrs. 
Bates and Lewis, John and Wm. Anderson, 
and others, built a large cotton factory, when 
there were neither turnpikes, railroads, or 
canal within twenty-five miles, exhibiting a 
degree of bold enterprise and trusting con- 
fidence in the future, under the circum- 
stances, and at the date thereof, unsurpassed 
in this or any other section of the west. At 
a later day many other and more extensive 
improvements distributed throughout the 
county, including machine shops and powder 
mills, manufactories of almost every descrip- 
tion of agricultural implements, as well as a 
great variety of articles of both domestic and 



43 

foreign traffic — paper mills, products of flax, 
and h( mp, rope walks, bagging and linen, 
all witness that there is still abroad, in this 
region, a lively interest and readiness to em- 
bark in any new enterprise thAt a wise pru- 
dence would recommend as a remunerative 
investment. Yet it is, as an agricultural dis- 
trict, remote from navigable streams and 
large water courses, and not so centrally lo- 
cated as to become the mart of a wide-extend- 
ed region, with neither coal or iron as a basis 
of wealth, that Greene county is to be partic- 
ularly noted for having developed, to the 
fullest extent, all the natural resources that 
Providence has placed within her reach. And 
still it can be truthfully said, that though des- 
titute of carboniferous and ferriferous de- 
posits, yet in her McDaniel quarries and lime 
producing strata, at Cedarvilie, Clifton, and 
Yellow Springs, she has found a constant 
market, for years past, at Cincinnati, Colum- 
bus, and other points, and has a capacity for 
increasing the supply, incomputable in value 
and inexhaustible in quantity, as it extends 
to depths unexplored and over an area of 
miles upon miles within available reach. 
Messrs. Srouffe, Irvine, Shroades & Son, Iliff 
& Orr, are the the principal manufacturers. 
"With a territorial area of 18 by 24 miles, di. 



44 

vided into twelve townships, scarcely au acre 
of unproductive soil lies within her borders? 
except where nature has bestowed upon her 
a scenic beauty of rare loveliness, consisting 
of deep and narrow glens, isolated rocks, 
lofty and impending cliffs, adorned with tow- 
ering evergreens and trailing vines, all be- 
neath the general level, as if to economize in- 
available space and afford channels for water 
power to propel the buzzing wheels of her 
multiplied industries. Thus possessed with 
all the various elements of a rich soil, timber, 
stone, lime, gravel, copious springs, and 
larger mill streams, with all her antecedent 
triumphs and noble achievements — material, 
moral, and intellectual. Greene county may 
well unite in this national birthday anniver- 
sary, decked in her most gaudy apparel, rep- 
resenting in bold relief all the various devices 
of mechanical labor and her highest artistic 
skill to augment the grand pageantry of this 
ever memorable celebration. With a citizen- 
ship of some 30,000 to 35,000, chiefly engaged 
in tilling the soil, it would be invidious to se- 
lect a few as successful and widely knownj 
when so many are distinguished as stock and 
grain producers by all the leading agricultur- 
ists of the stale. Yet as indicating the high 
rank and energetic character of the rural pop- 



45 

ulation, their zeal, liberality and intelligence, 
it can be set down to the credit of Greene 
county, that she alone sustains within her 
narrow limits two flourishing agricultural 
societies, a fact without a parallel in any oth- 
er county in the state, of no larger dimen- 
sions. The parent society was established in 
1833, and the Union, at Jamestown, in 1859. 
The records of the first not having been care- 
fully preserved its earlier history is more or 
less obscured ; but Mr. John Lucas Is its pres" 
ent efficient president, and J. B. Carruthers, 
secretary ; while 'Squire Cummins presides 
over the latter, which for the first eleven 
years of its existence elected Mr. R. Brown, 
continuously, as its executive head. The com- 
petitive rivalry existing between the two has 
doubtless led to a more general interest 
throughout the county, in the excellencies 
and perpetuation of both, and resulted in an 
increased activity and zeal, when otherwise 
an indifference and stagnation might have 
followed, for friction and contrast quicken 
the perception and life in all works and en- 
terprises of a growing importance and worth. 
And as a further illustration of the active and 
progressive spirit of this class, it may be 
stated that a granger organization was form- 
ed in 1873, by Daniel M. Stewart, now both 



46 

strong in numbers and influential in charac- 
ter, designed for educational and social im- 
provement, by arousing and bringing togeth- 
er divers minds to consult and advise as to 
the qualities of various soils, and the crops 
best adapted to each, as well as all other mat- 
ters and interests pertaining to good hus- 
bandry, including a better acquaintance and 
more advantageous relationships between 
both producers and consumers. "Whatever 
may be the ultimate results and benefits flow- 
ing from this co-operative effort to advance 
their life work, morally and materially, we 
doubt not great good will grow out of it. 
And the fact that it exists in our midst in 
such vigorous life demonstrates an activity 
of thought, an energy and thrift of which ev- 
ery citizen may well be proud. 

Of her central city, Xenia, laid out in 1803 
by John Paul, and surveyed by J. C. Vance, 
the father of the late Gov. Vance, with her 
7,000 inhabitants, 14 churches, 2 banks, 
schools and colleges, court-house, city hall, 
fire-engine houses, besides all other institu- 
tions and needs requisite for her healthy 
maintainance and growth, with nine turn- 
pikes radiating in all directions, and three 
railroads, with their combinations and unions 
embracing triple that number, extending to 



47 

all points of the compass, with still another 
independent line soon to be finished, pene- 
trating the very heart of the coal region of 
Ohio, and yet on the lookout for other ar- 
teries of commerce, she may well ptint with 
pride and honest exultation to these as her 
jewels, as did the old Roman matron, the 
mother of the Gracchi, to her sons, and feel 
assured that her works will praise her ; for 
it has passed into a proverb "by their fruits 
ye shall know them." Her deeds already ac- 
complished and noble records that have be- 
come historical, reveal the high character and 
indicate the intelligence of both her former 
and present citizenship. Likewise do her 
suburban villages declare, by their thrift and 
beauty, by their houses of worship and sem- 
inaries of learning, their near relation to the 
county town, in the organic elements of an 
energetic and self-improving character : Os- 
born and Fairfield, Bellbrook and Spring 
Valley, Jamestown and Cedarville, Clifton 
and Yellow Springs, each revolving in their 
own particular orbit, but differing from one 
another as stars vary in size and brilliancy, 
yet all uniting to form one constellation in 
the bright galaxy of her tributary and sur- 
rounding towns. It may be remarked, that 
while so many public thoroughfares and no- 



48 

ticeable improvements are found in Xenia 
alone, yet in the county at large no less than 
six distinct lines of railroads and several 
dozens of turnpikes, add largely to her gen- 
eral schedule of advantages and pleasant 
highways, and with them has come a large 
immigration of valuable laborers, who in 
their train have been followed by a self-de- 
voted ministry of the Roman Catholic 
church, whose field of work extends all along 
these various routes, and afford religious in- 
struction to those who otherwise would con- 
scientiously refuse moral teaching from any 
but their own sacerdotal order. Large con- 
gregations and creditable houses of worship 
are located in Xenia, Yellow Springs, James- 
town and Osborn, and Fathers Howard, 
Blake and Burns are names familiar to thou- 
sands as their accepted and venerated spir- 
itual guides. While honorable mention has 
been made of various classes and professions, 
justice demands that a high tribute be paid 
the memory and character of that religious 
sect, always an industrious, intelligent and 
moral element in every community, known 
as Friends, and represented in our early an- 
nals by such members as the Waltons, Em- 
breys, Thorns, Ellises, Wrights, Sprays, 
Comptons, Wilsons, Mendenhalls, Stanfields, 



49 

and at a later day reinforced by many more 
substantial and wealthy families from Vir- 
ginia and other Southern states. 

But doubtless one of the most potent 
agencies in producing these wonder-working 
results of our past history, by its activity of 
mind and vigor of thought, in disseminating 
knowledge, and by advocating the good and 
the true, and condemning the superficial and 
false, will involuntarily suggest its own 
name — the printing press. With its electrical 
communication with the whole universe 
of mind and matter, and with its Briarian 
arms outstretched and reaching every house- 
hold — it has more than brought down fire 
from heaven and outstripped the lightning's 
flash — it has quickened and enlightened the 
immortal intellect, and subserved every val- 
uable material, local and public interest, as 
well as social, moral and religious, and made 
familiar to every intelligent reader. Pelham, 
the editor and publisher of the first paper in 
Greene county, in 1810, then Kendall, Galla- 
gher, Gardner, Hollingsworth, Coke Wright, 
Purdy, Ramsey, Lapham, Fairchild & Nich- 
ols, Curry and McBratney, Leggett, White- 
law Reid, Bascom, Hawes, Kinney & Mil- 
burn ; and to-day, Stine & Marshall, Luce, 
Patton <fe Findley, are toiling in the same 



50 

fields of honorable labor, implanting and 
perpetuating their best thoughts and highest 
"wisdom for the good of all. 

There yet remains to be mentioned, the 
members of that most influential and useful 
class of professions — the physician, whose 
familiar acquaintance and associations with 
society in its most intimate relations at 
large, make them a power in community sec- 
ond to none other of equal numbers. It can 
he claimed for Greene county, that almost 
from her earliest formation, that one came 
Into her midst from Virginia, Dr. Joshua 
Martin, in 1813, who for over forty years was 
the acknowledged iEsculapius of his time, 
reflecting, by his vigor of thought, delicacy 
of feeling, skill in practice, and manly bear- 
ing, honor and renown upon all his worthy 
compeers, who iu character and fidelity to 
their calling, are to be reckoned among our 
most valuable and eminent citizens. Though 
twenty years have elapsed since his death, 
his name and memory are as familiar and 
fresh as but of yesterday. Now that the 
mellow hue of time and distance have cast 
their shadow over and around his cotempo- 
raries it will not be too much to claim that one 
such man would give a lasting reputation to 
any community so fortunate as to have se- 



51 

cured bis life work and no We services. N-ot'-. 
only in the practice of medicine and surgery,, 
was he distinguished, but in all the social re- 
lations of life, in the great moral reforms, of- 
temperance and anti-slavery, in his advocacy * 
of all local and public institutions, that were • 
humane and elevating in their character, was 
he equally known and celebrated. Particu- 
larly as an enlightened patron of schools and 
education generally, and an active partici- 
pant in all the grand system of internal im- 
provement, both local and general — in which 
Greene county was interested — he was ever 
a marked man, yielding to no one in his zeal,, 
activity and controlling influence. 
Among his personal friends and associates 
in the healing art in Greene county, are a. 
numerous band whose names will go down 
to posterity as his worthy co-laborers, and 
for their personal worth and devotion to 
medical science, will ever be held in lively 
remembrance while fidelity, virtue and good- 
ness are the esteemed characteristics of nota- 
ble men. In the honorable list will be found 
Dr. Wynans, the Dawsons and Spahr of 
Jamestown, Bell and Grimes of Bellbrook 
"Wilson and Thorns of Clifton and Yellow 
Springs, Greenes and Mcllhenny of Fairfield, 
Hoover of Osborn, Stewart and Winters of 



52 

Cedarville, Samuel Martin, Stipp, Towler, 
Cummins, Perkins, Johnston, Coburn, Har- 
bison, Kyle, McClellan, McClung, Edwards, 
and others still, a noble phalanx, protecting 
community from the insidious and malig- 
nant attacks of epidemic and other multifa- 
rious diseases. And akin to and as a branch 
of medical science, dentistry, can boast of 
having among her practitioners in Xenia as 
illustrious names in her Taft, Paine, and 
"Watt as can be found belonging to that spec- 
ial class, in any ordinary sized metropolis in 
the country. Their reputation is not con- 
fined to Greene county alone, but in the lit- 
erature, magazines and scientific works, pub- 
lished both in Europe and America, their ar- 
ticles are re-produced and commented upon 
for their intrinsic merit and valuable sugges- 
tions. Of a later date A. L. Decamp is con- 
tending for an equally honorable position in 
the same professional career. 

While incidental allusion has been made to 
the many works of internal improvement in 
the county, there is yet one grand feature — 
the spirit, the soul of all these enterprises, to 
be specially noticed. It has been quaintly 
and tersely said, that the greatest thing Eng- 
land ever did "was Cromwell," implying in 
one word the nobleness and majesty of that 



53 

great reformer and all the results of his life 
work. So it may be said of Greene county, 
that for which she will always be known and 
celebrated, will be her early enthusiasm, 
wise and successful efforts to construct an 
iron road from the Ohio river at Cincinnati, 
to Sandusky City on Lake Erie, forty years 
and more ago. This was the Little Miami, 
Mad Kiver & Lake Erie lines, the first grand 
railroad projection west of the Alleghenies, 
the promoter and fore-runner of the indefin- 
ite thousands of miles of other tracks since 
built between us and the Pacific Ocean. By 
her activity, zeal and prudent forecast, while 
other surrounding communities more pros- 
perous and wealthy, and with greater natural 
advantages slumbered and slept, the ever 
watchful and sagacious citizens of old Greene 
won the prize antf secured the honor forever 
entitled to both, of having had located with- 
in her own limits the earliest and grandest 
enterprise in all the west. As representa- 
tive men in this great work the names of 
Martin, Galloway, Hivling, Drake and Mills 
Will be perpetuated in the archives of the 
county as themselves not only the enicient 
instruments, but the exponents of the en- 
lightened sentiments of her then Commis- 
sioners, Fudge, Gowdy and Bates, and after- 



54: 

wards of Steele, Bennett and Daniel Lewis, 
besides others, equally intelligent and inter- 
ested citizens too numerous to mention. As 
in mathematics the larger contains the lesser 
number, so in all minor improvements of 
highways, turnpikes and bridges, no want 
has been unsupplied, but all over the county 
living evidences of progress and thrift loom 
up as witnesses of the taste and appreciation 
of our entire people, in these works of local, 
convenience and modern civilization. And 
though familiar now may be the names of the, 
officers connected with Greene county, it will 
be an honor to have been associated in that 
relationship, in all after years, and the seem- 
ing liberty will be pardoned, as posterity is 
interested in the present, if it is recorded 
that Moses Barlow is Judge of the Court of 
Common Pleas, John Orr Clerk of said Court, 
A. S. Frazer, Auditor, Col. Stevenson, Treas- 
urer, Hugh McQuiston, Recorder, J. H. Kyle ? 
Sheriff, J. W. Harper, Probate Judge, Har- 
vey Steele, James Stevenson and Wm. Watt, 
Commissioners. 

In this general sketch and summary of 
facts, incidents and illustrations pertaining 
to the origin and development of Greene 
county, how wonderful, how magic-like the 
change ! From an unbroken wilderness and i 



$5 

the chaotic elements of savage life, all within 
the memory and experience of persons pres- 
ent, we now behold spread out before us in 
oriental loveliness, more than a garden of 
Eden, a whole county with a happy and pros- 
perous population of cultured men and wo- 
men, dotting the entire surface with their 
homes of comfort and elegance, representing 
the most advanced ideas of socia! and do- 
mestic life, of civil and religious liberty and 
the advocates of all healthful, moral reforms 
known to mankind down to this 19th cen- 
tury. Modern civilization and Christianity 
nowhere reflect a brighter light nor shine up- 
on a fairer and purer realm. What more can 
I say ? What more can you anticipate ? Re- 
sults — grand, sublime, unsurpassed in the an- 
nals of our country, crown the heads of our 
pioneer fathers and their descendants, for 
their noble deeds and early achievements in 
this picturesque and beautiful region of roll- 
ing uplands and smiling valleys, of gurgling 
founts and crystal streams, of murmuring 
waterfalls and romantic glens, producing 
in combination all the scenic charms of 
the far-famed Thessalian Temple of Greece, 
and the bolder features of the Highlands 
of old Scotland. And when the rolling 
cycle of another centennial anniversary shal, 



56 

be celebrated by our posterity, and we, the 
joyful participators in this, shall have passed 
on and attained to loftier conceptions and 
nobler employments in the ever-ascending 
scale of our immortal destiny, may we not 
hope that our children's children will still 
be occupying this, their inherited patrimony, 
building up and sustaining every known val- 
uable interest belonging to human welfare, 
and inspired by the sainted memory of their 
illustrious ancestry be proud to maintain, 
and if possible to surpass, the present grand, 
glorious record of our own historical and 
beloved Greene county. 



LIBRARY OF CONbKt^o 



I ( 



014 573 978 



